Shotgun Wedding movie review: This vanilla rom-com needed more Jennifer Coolidge

Set on an island resort, Shotgun Wedding ceremony follows the nuptials of a pair, Darcy (Jennifer Lopez) and Tom (Josh Duhamel) that go horribly fallacious when pirates hijack it. To avoid wasting their family members, they need to outsmart the pirates, whereas making an attempt to maintain their very own sanity earlier than they are saying their vows. Directed by Jason Moore, Shotgun Wedding ceremony has all the usual tropes of a romantic comedy, however doesn’t stand out with its vanilla story and screenplay by Mark Hammer. (Additionally learn: Jennifer Lopez shares new pics from her marriage ceremony with Ben Affleck, talks about excellent timing: ‘Lastly settling down’)

Lopez performs the anxious bride, who has to see her divorced mother and father, performed by Sonia Braga and Cheech Marin, make small discuss alongside along with her father’s new girlfriend Harriet (D’Arcy Carden). Tom, in the meantime, is in control of planning the entire marriage ceremony on the Mahal Island Resort within the Philippines. His mother and father, performed by Steve Coulter and Jennifer Coolidge, are far more enthusiastic, and but the couple is a bit jittery forward of the vacation spot marriage ceremony.

It does not assist issues that Darcy’s cool ex Sean (Lenny Kravitz) reveals as much as complicate issues. Whereas they’re making an attempt to work out their emotions forward of the ceremony, pirates determine to make themselves unwelcome friends and demand a ransom from the bride’s father. Tom and Darcy evade escape as the remainder of the friends are taken hostage. They have to navigate by way of armed gunmen, a stay grenade, and the specter of their family members’ lives, to make it out on the opposite aspect. Nothing brings a pair collectively like a loss of life menace.

Unsurprisingly, regardless of getting just a little worse for the wear and tear, the bride and groom maintain their very own in opposition to the pirates. They do some plotting of their very own and with assist from the resort’s managers, formulate a plan. The comedy goes by way of all predictable factors, with some motion sequences thrown in for gentle laughs. The reveal of the primary villain felt straightforward to predict and held no actual menace. Moreover a chuckle right here and there, Shotgun Wedding ceremony has few moments of romance and fewer of comedy.

The movie doesn’t make the most of its supporting solid effectively sufficient, by giving them zingier materials to work with. With a literal rockstar in Kravitz and a Golden Globe-winning comedy veteran in Coolidge, the movie may have finished a lot extra. It is by no means a superb check in a movie when a personality utters the road, “I do not know why, I’ve a nasty feeling about this.” In reality, the movie wanted a lot extra of Coolidge, who steals each scene she’s in. It was an important choice to solid her as Lopez’s mother-in-law, and their interactions are few. All one of the best bits are already revealed within the trailer.

Lopez, who can be producer on the challenge, tries to steadiness the comedy and feelings of her position. Nevertheless it does fall flat as there’s not sufficient materials to work on. Shotgun Wedding ceremony throws us into their rehearsal dinner and straightaway strikes to their marriage ceremony, telling us little concerning the couple and their romance. The chemistry between her and Duhamel can be skinny. Ryan Reynolds, who’s govt producer on the movie, was initially connected to star within the rom-com.

The top credit reveals the solid, and their characters, really letting unfastened as they sing and dance at a celebration. It offers us a glimpse of what the romantic comedy may have really been like. Shotgun Wedding ceremony premieres on Lionsgate Play in India on January 27.